General Announcements
Parent Volunteers:
MAP Growth Assessment: Next week Monday - Thursday mornings from 8:10 - 8:45 all middle school students will be taking the MAP Growth Assessment. Please help your student(s) be at their best by getting a good night's rest and starting each morning with a healthy breakfast. For more information about the MAP Growth Assessment you can view NWEA's Parent Guide .
Fifth Grade:
Survival Camp: Thur Sept 27 - Fri Sept 28. Parent volunteer forms are due Tues Sept 11. Thank you to all of those who signed up to bring food for camp! We will send an email reminder closer to camp reminding you of what you signed up to bring.
Band: Music Making is underway! All students need a case tag with their name and address on it (I have free ones, come see me if you still need one, tried to get them all out there). All students need a book, folder, and all have their instruments. First full band today, so excited to get going with all of them at once. All students know about 3-5ish or more notes. Reading music from the staff is essential, so we will work hard on making sure they can read the notes and name them as well as know how to finger, blow, etc. You can help! Encourage regular practice - ask them lots of questions! Have them show you what they know. New skills are exciting to realize and develop! See the book for links to videos and play alongs and all sorts of free cool online offers from Traditions of Excellence.
Bible: This week we have been thinking like archaeologists! Students have learned about where and how archaeologists dig, what they find, and how archaeological digs help us to better understand the Bible. Next week archaeologist Neal Bierling will join us to share stories of his digs in the Middle East and Peru. We will begin digging Friday Sept 14.
Language Arts: This past week we were introduced to our ipads and how to use them. So for next week, we will continue to work on our Melvin Bubble perspective projects. Also, we will delve into our survival unit with numerous activities and wonderful books. Students will bring home their first individualized spelling lists and will be tested on those words on Friday.
Math: We are already wrapping up our first chapter - that flew by! The test is Wednesday Sept. 12 and the review is due Tuesday Sept. 11. Please check your child’s answers with this answer key . Make sure your child is practicing their math facts - our goal is to get math facts down to a minimum of 3 seconds per fact.
Music: We have sung lots of songs, and listened and learned some new ones, and are going to be working on notation reading skills/theory as well.
Science: We’re learning about and making some scientific models this week. Our first area of study will be modeling shadows and what observations of those might tell us about movement of the sun and Earth.
Social Studies: This past week, students finished studying various bodies of waters and landforms. They will begin looking at maps next week, exploring geographic tools.
Spanish: We are learning our class routines and will begin our curriculum on the 11th. I can’t believe how much they remember from last year. Fantastico!
Sixth Grade:
Devotion Sign-up: Sign up to lead devotions for our 6th Graders on a Thursday (8:00-8:10am) this school year. We love to have parents and guests come to share a story, song, verse, prayer or devotional with us.
Chicken Checkup & Got Yolk?: The 6th Graders have a chicken and egg business called “Got Yolk?” and will be caring for our 49 chickens and selling eggs this year. Most of these responsibilities are carried out during the school day as there is a team of students assigned to care for the chickens each week. The team is also in charge of feeding and watering the chickens once on Saturday and once on Sunday for the weekend following their week of responsibility during the school day. After determining which Team your child is on, please sign up to take care of chores on the weekend. If your child has questions, he or she should contact the “Eggsecutive Council” member on his or her team. The Eggsecutives will work closely with Mr. Hoo to keep the chickens happy and to get the business running smoothly!
Service Project: 6th Graders will be serving in our community on Thu Sept 27 and Fri Sept 28. Please sign up to help make this a meaningful experience for our students.
Band: Practice calendars are out, and our first quiz was today. Please encourage a regular practice schedule - we have pages in our book to work on and sheet music too! Practice calendars are due at the end of Sept - this is new. 160 minutes for this first month is an A as we gradually begin. GO BAND!
Bible: Students are working on projects to understand who waited in the Bible, what they were waiting for, how they waited, and what they learned about God through their process of waiting. We will present our projects in class to learn from each other.
Choir: We have sung a lot of songs and learned a drum solo for Yesu Azali Awa. You might have heard this drum solo a few times.
Social Studies: This past week, students focused their studies on our first theme of geography- location. They explored how to find absolute locations using latitude and longitude and learned more about maps. Next week, students will finish studying maps and will begin their focus on our second theme- regions.
Language Arts: Students had “Tech Boot Camp” this past week, so next week we will continue to review the parts of speech.
Math: In math we will continue studying measurement and decimal computation. We will spend time reviewing and preparing for our first test on Friday, Sept 14. Each student has a study guide and practice test to complete by Wednesday.
Orchestra: We are off to a wonderful beginning in orchestra! Practice time is 20 minutes every week and almost everyone is off to a great start and handed in 2 weeks of minutes. We have pages in our books and sheet music as well.
Science: Students are running various investigations simultaneously - they’ve done a great job working together to stay organized when making observations. We will work with microscopes this week.
Spanish: We are learning our class routines and will begin our curriculum on the 11th. Students should have brought home a course description hand out. This can also be found on Moodle.
Seventh Grade:
Algebra (7th): Today we wrapped up our first chapter and next week we will begin chapter two studying properties of real numbers.
Band: Practice calendars are out, and our first quiz was today. Please encourage a regular practice schedule - we have pages in our book to work on and sheet music too! Practice calendars are due at the end of Sept - this is new. 160 minutes for this first month is an A as we gradually begin.
Bible (Holtop/Huttenga): We are very excited to begin our unit on devotions. Students will begin creating their own and listening to speakers share about how they do devotions.
Choir: We are singing and studying and learning about the Erie Canal. Projects will begin soon about this song and the history of the Erie Canal!
Language Arts: Next week we will begin our first writing project. We will be exploring voice in writing as we begin the Organism Road Sign project, a cross-curricular project that will yield its final product at Fine Arts Night. Students will also need to continue bringing their novels to school when we participate in Reading Zone this Tuesday and Thursday.
Math (Holtrop): Students will have their first test on Tuesday about integers.
Pre-Algebra (Kiser): Next week we will be working heavily with integers (positive and negative numbers).
Orchestra: We have lots of new music to work on in 7th grade and everyone is working to hand in the practice sheets each week! 20 minutes per week!
Science: We will be doing a study of Mono Lake and the unique ecosystem there.
Spanish: Unit 6 is underway! We are learning how to say - sit down, stand up and yells at. Should make for some fun stories this coming week!
Eighth Grade:
Band: Practice calendars are out, and our first quiz was today, Sep 06. Please encourage a regular practice schedule - we have pages in our book to work on and sheet music too! Practice calendars are due at the end of Sept - this is new. 160 minutes for this first month is an A as we gradually begin.
Bible (Huttenga): 8th graders will be exploring the perspective of reformation through allegory - we’ll be reading through The Last Battle, by CS Lewis
Bible (Van Noord): Bible Verse Rock Presentations began Sep 06. Ask which verse your student chose and why.
Choir: We are doing a unit on music/genres and what we like, and sharing a playlist. Lots of discussion on what is ok for a Christian to listen to, etc.
Geometry: We will have our first unit test on Monday.
Language Arts: 8th graders continue to do research for NHD. In the coming week, students will learn more about creating a Bibliography and preparing to create an outline for their essay.
Pre-Algebra: Next week we will be working heavily with integers (positive and negative numbers).
Science: Our first I-check will be next week Tuesday. We then will continue our study of planetary science looking into what causes seasons on Earth.
Spanish: Unit 6 is underway! We are learning how to say - sit down, stand up and yells at. Should make for some fun stories this coming week!